Dave Willets with Shona Lindsey in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at the New Vic.

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Dave Willets — veteran of countless productions by musical theatre legends such as Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber — takes the lead role in this adaptation of the 1954 Stanley Doran film starring the redheaded 50s heartthrob Howard Keel. “You’ve got kitsch and thigh-slapping with Seven Brides, I can assure you of that,” said Dave from backstage at Norwich, the current stop on the Seven Brides trail. “It really is everything you would expect a West End or Broadway musical to be. It has the dancing, the songs, the comedy, the story and the happy ever after ending. It’s not trying to be anything that it’s not. “You wouldn’t want to come along and read anything into it that’s not there. It’s just high entertainment.” The cast and crew of the current tour first saddled up for what turned out to be a long run three yeas ago and after a break brought it back last year. Since then this Wild West tale of seven siblings’ quests for marital bliss has been packing out theatres up and down the country. Dave said: “We play to about 90 per cent capacity which is brilliant for nowadays. “The thing is — especially with today’s environment where you’ve got TV, DVDs, the Internet — you’ve got everything to stop people going out. Therefore when people do come out and spend their hard-earned money in the theatre and you see the place jam-packed you think well we’ve got a good product here. It is very rewarding.” During the years, Dave has played a wide variety of musical roles and has perhaps seemed more at home playing the title roles in some of the heavier musicals including Phantom of the Opera and Sweeney Todd. The lighter role of Adam Pontipee is one he is relishing. He said: “I do a bit of dancing and sing all these fantastic songs. I get to kiss the girl and ride off into the sunset so you can’t really ask for more. “It seemed I had cornered the market in tortured souls with Phantom and Les Miserables and all these angst-ridden characters — when they said: ‘Do you want to do Adam Pontipee in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,’ I jumped at the chance. “It gives a chance for people to see the other side of what you can do because there is comedy in it, there’s dancing and people just think Dave sings all these heavy type songs but it’s another side. “It’s great for an actor to show you can do things like that. I guess that’s why we are called actors.” He said with endless repeats of the 1954 film on television, the story of the show was bound to be well known but, he said the theatre gives the story — or the way that story is told — a new perspective. “In theatre it’s a lot bigger, it’s a lot more exuberant,” said Dave. “When I watch that movie the thing that always strikes me is the fantastic scenery, the Oregon backdrop. “In film, one slight raise of an eye brow can tell you so many different things because the camera can go in but in the theatre you have really got to express it. “That move of an eyebrow on film has got to be done with your whole body in theatre.” The Pontipee brothers will be in search of their future wives on the New Victoria Theatre’s stage from Monday to Saturday.